From SpaceDaily: First Crew for Tiangong.
Linked from a posting on the www.9ifly.cn forum:-http://guba.eastmoney.com/look,002025,4012701390.html
Linked from a posting on the www.9ifly.cn forum:-http://guba.eastmoney.com/look,002025,4012701390.htmlOnline translation:-"Shenzhou 9 on January 23 ascends to the heavens, on January 26 to the heavenly palace (Tiangong) carry out the docking.It is reported Shenzhou 8 appraisal reports already completed, 119 scientific researches are successful. Shenzhou 9 will launch on January 23, 2012, will carry 3 people to ascend to the sky (includes first female astronaut), and on January 26 once more will dock with the heavenly palace (Tiangong)"I've no idea now credible the source website is and I cannot find any other reports. The 9ifly posters seems to be treating the report with understandable scepticism!Discuss!
Sounds like a hoax to me: January 23 fell exactly on the first day of the Chinese new year, so I would expect that all engineers would be back to their homes at that time (I wouldn't even bet on ANY Chinese orbital launch attempt in late January 2012). Plus this article came from a stock-trading website, of all places...
Whilst I share everyone's instinctive scepticism here, there was this CCTV report, filed just after SZ-8/TG-1 docking, which indicated that Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Year) would see the settling of SZ-9 and 10 crews.http://video.sina.com.cn/p/news/c/v/2011-11-14/220361560563.htmlCoincidence?
The assembly of CZ-2F (Y9) has started(source in Chinese)
That will mean at least one reboost for the Tiangong 1 orbit before the launch takes place.
New estimate(s) of likely SZ-9 launch, based on orbital decay rate, which appears to have slowed since a December 15th changed to TG-1's orientation.http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/China/Shenzhou/Shenzhou09.phpAny of our orbital mechanics experts care to comment?